I was taken aback by this for he had never said a word to me about
the frequent visits to the Gowdy ranch which Buck's talk seemed to show
had taken place. What had he been coming over for? I wondered, as I
heard Gowdy greeting me.
"Glad to see you, Mr. Vandemark," said he. "What can I do for you-all?"
"We heard you wanted a couple of hands," said I, "and we thought--"
"I need a couple of hundred," said he. "Put 'em to work, Mobley,"
turning to the overseer; and then he went off into a lot of questions
and orders about the work, after which he jumped into the buckboard
buggy, in which Pinck Johnson sat with the whip in his hands, and they
went off at a keen run, with Pinck urging the team to a faster pace, and
Gowdy holding to the seat as they went careering along like the wind.
We lived in a great barracks with his other men, and ate our meals in a
long room like a company of soldiers. It was a most interesting business
experiment which he was trying; and he was going behind every day. Where
land is free nobody will work for any one else for less than he can make
working for himself; and land was pretty nearly free in Monterey County
then. All a man needed was a team, and he could get tools on credit; and
I know plenty of cases of people breaking speculator's land and working
it for years without paying rent or being molested. The rent wasn't
worth quarreling about. But Gowdy couldn't get, on the average, as much
out of his hired men in the way of work as they would do for themselves.
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